The present disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and an image processing program for detecting a target object from an image partially including an image of the target object.
In recent years, a technique for detecting an area including a target object from an image including a background and a target object, such as an image obtained by photographing a sample on a prepared slide, is being studied. If an area including a target object can be detected from an image without omission, image processing can be performed only on the detected image area, which is advantageous in terms of a reduction of an operation amount, a processing time, and the like.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-93172 (paragraph [0066], FIG. 3; hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses an “image processing apparatus” that uses change amounts of pixel values among adjacent pixels in an area detection. The image processing apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 calculates pixel value change amounts of a certain pixel and peripheral pixels within the same image and calculates whether there is a bias in the peripheral pixels. Then, the image processing apparatus detects an area where there is a pixel value change compared to peripheral pixels based on the pixel value change amounts of the peripheral pixels that takes a bias of the peripheral pixels into account.